Guy McLaren

I have a domain that is currently of no use to anyone. It is lying idle and reminds me of my Brother in Law. Why did I bother to register it and build the crap that is currently on it?

As I am by nature a very curious individual I have come up with an idea. I am going to create a survey with a few goals in mind. The survey will ask 20 questions that will have answers varying from  “Why? ” to full dissertations by very intelligent and even stupid people.

I have a few questions in mind but am trying to find what you are curious about. If you could as a single question of a few hundred possibly a few thousand people what would it be? As part of my journey I will be talking to passersby, the curious and just innocent bystanders. I want a standard list of questions that I can ask and put the answers on a site.

Here is your opportunity to help create this list of questions, What do you want to know?

Here are a few of the questions or ideas that I am formulating?

What is your name? (Surnames not required)

Where were you born? (Town)

Where do you live now? (Town)

How old are you? (20’s, 30’s, 40’s etc)

Have you registered to Vote?

Why and what message do you have for other citizens of South Africa?

What do you love most about SA?

What do you think the biggest concern is of South Africans?

What is your biggest concern?

Which six South Africans would you invite to dinner and why?

If you were dictator for a day, what would you change?

What is your favorite sport?

Who do you think would be the best person for the job of SA president? You don’t need to pick a politician.

What are your opinions on AA, BEE and quotas in sport?

Earliest childhood memory?

What are your thoughts regarding the Zimbabwe issue?

What religion do you subscribe to and why?

Do you support any charitable works, If so tell us about them?

Have you achieved you goals and ambitions that you had as a child?

Do you have a fixed set of tangible goals in writing and a plan to achieve them?

I have been tweeting for a while now, My first tweet was in September sometime. I am about to do my 100th tweet, sometime in the next day or two. Some would call it a milestone  I know that it points to my procrastination.

I have some good convos, have found some intersting folks but seriously the majority of tweets are a waste of effort. I followed Guy Kawasaki and eventually unfollowed him because he bores me. I unfollowed a number of people for various reasons and am not sure why I bother following others.

Here are the things that I gain from twitter.

1. More people reading my blog because they are following me.

2. Information that I read because the people I follow link to it.

3. Communication with “friends” I have made on Twitter.

But I spend way too much time reading pages and pages of inconsequential stuff for a few gems and nuggets. I am not sure if the ratio of effort spent justifies benefit received.

Heres why I am not going to dump Twitter. I figure its a good way to communicate with those that are interested in what I am up to. What I am not going to do is post links to every site I visit, post inconsequential stuff like what I am having for lunch, or how badly I need a coffee infusion..

I will tweet the things that are important to me, like milestones on my journey, Updating folks on my latest blog posts, If I find something awesome on the net I will link to it. I will never link to a link I posted to something else because seriously thats just offpissing. (It’s the reason I unfollowed Guy Kawasaki and the 15 alltop links he posts daily)

Twitter does have potential, Potential to swallow up hours of your life when you could be doing something productive.

I tweet at twitter.com/guymclaren If you want to keep informed about My Journey around South Africa and subscribing to the RSS feed on pedals.co.za is not enough, follow me. If you want to get my thoughts on politics, the web, or any of the other crap I write about just subscribe to my feed here.

I have been thinking, and yes I know its dangerous and my head might explode. I remember when the National Party was in power. I lived back in the bad old days when I was advantaged and did not know it. I lived back when people could tell the difference between the Nationale Party and the Herstigte Nationale Party.

I don’t know if the then NP had court fights with the HNP because their name was almost the same. Surely the people that were stupid would mix up those two names. I mean there is only one letter that differs in the acronym.

The ANC is currently trying to prevent COPE from using congress of the people because well people will mistake that for the ANC because in 1955 the ANC had a jolly called you got it the congress of the people. I must be totally unpolitical because I had never heard the term Congress of the People, I know that 53 years ago the ANC had that jolly because I heard it on the news the other day.

I know there are people that were alive back then that attended the jolly and remember it. I went to a jolly in the 80’s we referred to as the big pissup. We drank more at the big pissup than any other company had ever done that had a conference at that hotel in Dullstroom.  So should we complain every time some one says big pissup because that was the name of our jolly back in 87 or 88?

I don’t quite understand how the ANC thinks anyone will mistake the Congress of the People for African National Congress, Yes I know they both use the word Congress, but as I understand it, and I must admit I have not checked a wiki or a dictionary so this is my own definition, a congress is a gathering of people, and congresses are held regularly all over the world.

Is the ANC trying to trademark an English word? or do they really think people are that stupid that they will associate a jolly held 55 years ago for a political party?

Enough said. By the way if you have not registered to vote, Shame on you! Go to your nearest IEC office and register before it’s too late. Your country needs you!

The ANC is trying its best to stop the new party COPE from forming. They are also disrupting meetings held by other parties.

Facts are that the current court case against COPE is just more bullying. You can help by copying and pasting the letter below to the addresses attached.

This is not about who you are going to vote for, It is about giving the freedom to everyone to choose their own party, It is about leveling the playing field so that all have equal access.

Copy and send to, Also forward to as many people as you can. Stop the ANC bullying.
mazibukos@elections.org.za
mraswiswi@justice.gov.za

MEO: SIBONGILE MAZIBUKO

158 LOVEDAY STREET
CIVIC CENTRE 2ND FLOOR COUNCIL CHAMBER
BRAAMFONTEIN                                                                                                                                                                  19th November 2008

Re: Congress of the People.

Dear Sirs,

This is a brief confirmation to ensure that your organisation is aware that recently many meetings have been held across the nation of South Africa in the capacity of congresses of the people of South Africa in order to examine new policies that will be of benefit and an advantage to the ordinary citizen as a result of the deficiencies and arrogance, embezzlement, racism and sheer corruption now common place in the current ruling regime.

These congresses are a normal function of society, and are similar to congresses of the people held continuously every year for the past decades by many other political parties and organisations.

Kindly confirm receipt of this letter and email.

Yours sincerely,

Add your name here
Contact phone

I don’t know who took this photo. I would happily credit them, I received it in an email this morning and felt it needed sharing.

Coming or going

Over on Pedals.co.za, The pedal for charity site we are having a Tshirt design competition. I am looking for a Tshirt that will tell the tale of a man, a velobile and lots of distance. In order to raise funds we have decided that a T-shirt you can buy is a good idea.

Vince of Moral Fibre has offered to print the T’s at cost. So now we need a design and factually I know as design goes I am fairly limited in my abilities. I am more tech oriented than design so need some help. The designer that wins will get lots of Kudos and even some exposure.

Look at how much nice stuff I am saying about Vince Hoffman already and I don’t even have a T-Shirt yet

A single vote has no effect whatsoever on the results, It is thus a good idea for ANC supporters not to vote, Your single vote won’t make one little bit of difference. But here is the thing if you don’t vote don’t whine about who is in power,

Don’t stand in the bank queue whinging about the service since “these people” have been in power. Don’t tell me how the country is going to hell in a handbasket if you have not registered to vote. But lets take this a step further, You registered and voted for a party that has no chance of making a difference.

Let me explain this is short sentences. The only reason some parties exist is because it is the only way the party leader will get a job.  You see if they achieve the minimum number of votes required they have a job for the next 5 years.

Voting for no hopers just dilutes the vote that an opposition with teeth would have. I think voting on colour lines is foolish. Lets understand one thing, all politicians are lying scum, some just lie a  little less than others. I am thinking that a vote for the DP or the other mini parties is probably about as good as not voting.

A Vote for the ANC will lead to a South Africa I don’t want to live in.  I like the new party thats name has not yet been registered because  I like the idea that they want to change the system to allow us to vote for our local rep.

That would be bringing the power back to the people and would stop the kind of crap recently seen where the ANC fired and hired local people for being loyal or disloyal to the party.

I am calling on all tweeter to help remove the scourge of the magpie advert. Do not sign up and start sending them. To all that receive these horrible spammy tweets, Unfollow the culprit after a warning.

Its sad that nothing remains inviolate from the spammer community.

I have been staying away from the news, away from Politics and other things guaranteed to upset me. I heard about the convention via headlines, I thought so what another ANC breakaway, Remember the IDP? I did not think it could make a real difference.

Lets face it the IDP is like a flea on a dog, It worries and causes a scratch but generally the dog does what it wants despite the flea. The DA as an opposition is not a problem to the ANC, seriously it’s considered a white party. Our vote for the DA does not mean a lot.

Over the weekend the DA, the IDP, the ACDP and a whole lot of people from other parties including the ANC shared a stage. They spoke with a unified voice. I personally believe that this new party is a step in the right direction. I believe this is the most positive thing to happen in politics in this country in 15 or so years.

The last time I was this positive about anything political was when Nelson Mandela was released, and the time I got to vote for change, the first non racial elections. These to me were defining moments. I think we are now faced with a defining moment.

When this party officially launches, for the first time ever I will join and become a paid up member of a political party. I will campaign for the party and encourage every single person I meet to vote for the Party yet to be named.

Why do I think this party is so important? Lets start with the fact that they want bottom up representation. They want us to vote for our Mayor, for our local MP. They are saying that people that are placed by Party management is not beneficial to democracy. This is one issue that I already believe in.

They want to give the country back to the people. We will elect the person best suited to our own neighbourhood, not some fool that has a drink with the party secretary. If they get nothing else right, this will give us a say in how our town is run.

Face it we cannot do much about central government, Once those bastards are entrenched, they are entrenched. We can however call for the removal of our local councilors if we have the vote. If they are not doing their jobs we can fire their arses if we are voting for them.

Democracy never works like in the current format. We vote for a party and they then choose who gets the jobs. Thats not democracy, It’s an elected Dictatorship. We have an opportunity to throw our voices behind the voice of reason. Remember to register to vote next weekend. It’s important.

I was sitting here quietly minding my own business when there came a knock at the door. My son called me, he said someone for you, they say it’s business.

I loudly proclaimed, What the fuck is wrong with people, don’t they know it’s Sunday. Just leave me alone, while walking to the door. Two well dressed men were on the step. I spied the watchtower and the words just escaped. Just Fuck off, Fuck off now. I thought they were still in my head and was going to say something polite like Fuck right off.

The fear in those faces got me to thinking. How much abuse will someone take for their cult? Seriously my daughter MXit’d her BF and told him to lock the gate, There are brainwashed drones preaching in the area. His response was illuminating. He finds it humorous when his father swears at them so he was going to make sure the gate was open.

Now this brings to my mind that I am not the only person that roundly abuses these tards when they knock on my door. What goes through their minds when they get that abuse. As a salesman I get rejection but abuse is very rare.

I think I need to hire a couple of them as sales people. Because if I got the abuse I got I sure as hell would not knock on the next door. Those cult sales people just moved on to take some abuse from my neighbour. Here is my question to you?

When you spy Watchtower bearing people what is your reaction? Am I just a rude bastard, or are there a large percentage of us abusing these poor folks that are trying to convert you to their cult?